Our Work
Freedman Consulting provides strategic planning, ecosystem mapping, coalition management, and policy development to the country’s leading philanthropies, public interest organizations, and policymakers. Our approach focuses on helping clients conceptualize their goals then developing comprehensive, flexible, and actionable strategies that meet their needs. The list below highlights some of our current and former clients.
Case Studies
Building a Funders Forum for Criminal Justice Reform
A group of foundations committed to criminal justice reform and seeing significant new investments in the field were seeking ways to better connect long-time and newer philanthropists to ensure momentum and alignment on an issue that was gaining real traction, but at risk of being siloed. Freedman Consulting did stakeholder outreach and mapping to understand the opportunity, potential collaborative goals, activities, and outcomes. With this research and an initial convening, we worked with funding partners to craft a vision for a “forum” driving alignment and relationship building and developed a governance structure for the Criminal Justice Funders Forum. Seven years later, the Forum includes almost 30 funders who collectively invest more than $500M a year in a range of reform efforts and is supported by the firm. This ongoing collaborative effort provides venues for learning, the opportunity for funders to think together on trends in the field and how these trends can inform their own funding strategies, and sparked new partnerships and investments.
Building a National Movement for STEMM Equity
The White House, one of the most premier scientific societies, and a leading national philanthropy together identified a major opportunity for public-private partnership and leadership: To launch a new national movement for achieving equity in STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine) fields, pairing the convening power of the administration with key coordinating infrastructure to bring what had been a disparate field of work into an aligned cross-sector effort to achieve systemic change. Freedman Consulting worked for over a year with these core partners to develop and refine a concept and strategic plan for launching a new multi-million dollar non-profit initiative, intended to serve as the central platform for organizing and leading this movement today and for the next 25+ years. That work included identifying and refining key organizational goals and metrics for success in its initial years of work; necessary structures and resources today as well as potential capacities and functions to build in the future; an assessment of key stakeholders and partners needed for success and impact; and supporting initial development of a cross-sector national plan for achieving equity in STEMM. With our support, this initiative launched at the first-ever White House summit on STEMM equity and today has over 100 committed partner institutions representing more than $1.5 billion in collective work and investment on initiatives focused on driving greater equity in STEMM fields.
Landscaping a Complex Issue Area
A group of three foundations heavily invested in a complex issue area wanted to know whether their efforts were succeeding, how they could be more effective and where the issue was headed. Freedman Consulting, LLC, spoke to dozens of stakeholders, including grantees and policymakers, in order to develop a detailed landscape of the issue. The landscape helped define key choices and opportunities over the near-term, suggested where grantees were already effective and provided actionable suggestions for improvement.
Creating & Implementing a Strategic Plan
A public-private partnership focused on workforce development came to Freedman Consulting, LLC, to design a strategy to help achieve its goals. The new initiative had a mission, but required an organizational plan that could facilitate growth and help position the effort as an issue-leader in its area. Freedman Consulting, LLC, was then brought on by the public-private partnership to offer ongoing communications and strategic consulting in order to help implement pieces of the strategic plan the firm developed.